[Plugin] ComponentScenes v0.3 UPDATE

[tim]

Here's a first attempt at a plugin to build a set of pages that show one component each, ready for Layout to embed and dimension etc.

Usage
Select one or more components - even inside another component - and from the plugin menu 'Build Component Scenes'. You should see a number of pages appear, each named after the components chosen, Each page will have one component visible on a layer named after the component. When you open the model in Layout you will now have a nice convenient way to do individual component drawings.

I've tried to make this idempotent - if you repeat the command you should get the same results each time with no interference between the sets of pages. Pages seem to be happy to share names whereas Layers seem to prefer unique names and there shouldn't be any clashes.

The current To-Do list is

Make this an extension later http://sketchupapi.blogspot.ca/2011/07/ ... nsion.html
Package as an RBZ file http://sketchupapi.blogspot.ca/2011/12/ ... -your.html
Do not make scenes for duplicate components
- (how to decide this? scaling, shearing and flipping in the component transform can make two apparently equivalent components NOT duplicates).
Make undo/redo friendly.
- first pass at this is to wrap the main routine in start/commit_ operation
# but it doesn't remove created pages and
# SU crashes completely if it tries to undo a lot of component pages
Find a way to close any open component edits after making the component pages so that the components don't appear to be missing; you could argue that the user should understand but never underestimate the confusion of users. On hold for now because it would surely annoy users to lose an edit deep inside a complex model

Updates for v0.3

• attempt workaround for active_view.zoom failing to actually zoom to the chosen component

Updates for v0.2

• Wrapped routine in start/commit_operation, which speeds up dealing with many components.
• Zoom to extent of component when making the page.

Download ComponentScenes

ComponentScenes.rb

[tim]

Here's an example skp file and layout file to show what it does.

BedComponentScenesExample.skp

BedComponentScenesExample.layout

The skp started as a single page with the bed model. I d-clicked on the bed component to open it and selected-all. The plugin created the slat, side, headboard, footboard and mid rail pages. Since the headboard and footboard are composed of further components I also opened them and repeated the process, creating a sizeable list of other pages with each individual component on its own page.

The model was sent to Layout and just as an example I created a detail page for the post from the headboard. Since the post exists on its own scene I could have a total of five views on the page, one each of the left/right/front/back view and an iso view for context. Without any other components in the SU scene there is no clutter to worry about in Layout.

[tim]

Version 0.2 updated to-

• wrap the routine in start/commit_operation. This noticeably speeds up dealing with many components. It *should* also make 'undo' work better but Pages do not get removed by undo so something ain't raht.
• zoom to the extent of each component when creating the page for it

See first post for download.

[Rich O Brien]

Thanks for this Tim

It's somewhat similar to this....

viewtopic.php?t=39152

[tim]

It's somewhat similar to this....

viewtopic.php?t=39152

Yes, it has some important similarities to both the viewports and Comp2Layer plugins including the fact that they jointly inspired me to try something oblong the same lines but more suited to my own needs. ComponentScenes works with nested components though, which viewports seems not to handle. Comp2Layer actually *moves* the chosen components to new layers, which I found annoying.

Most importantly to me the process of writing the plugin is a learning experience; the possibility that it may result in something useful to other people is a nice bonus

[tim]

something oblong the same lines

Hunh? Damn you auto cockerel. That should be oolong

[tim]

New version uploaded 15 Jun 2012; try to make the zoom setting for each component scene actually work. Yet again, the API does't do what it says in the docs.

[Dan Rathbun]

Pages seem to be happy to share names whereas Layers seem to prefer unique names and there shouldn't be any clashes.

I think your asking for trouble.

What will happen when code tries to get a reference to a page with: pages["name"] ??

[TIG]

It is daft that Definitions, Layers, Materials etc must have unique names - set automatically, BUT every Scene-tab could be called 'foo' !
You can 'uniquify' your page names... before falling foul of the potential for duplicated names...

Code: Select all

### assuming that 'pages' is reference to the Model's Pages object
names = []; pages.each{|page| names << page.name }
used = []; names.each{|name|
  unless used.include?(name)
    used << name
  else ### already used !
    name = name+"#1"
    name.next! while used.include?(name)
    used << name
  end
}
used.each_with_index{|name, i| pages[i].name = name }


### NOW the Scene-tabs will have unique names !
foo, foo#1, foo#2, foo#3 etc...